Dispensing applicator for bobby pins



July 31, 1951 v. CARDELLA ET AL DISPENSING APPLICATOR FOR BOBBY PINS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 2, 1949 July 31, 1951 v. CARDELLA ET AL DISPENSING APPLICATOR FOR BOBBY PINS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 2, 1949 J a W a 3 or-carriage 2i and the bottom wall ll of the housing member.

It should be apparent that a vertical feeding guideway for the stack of bobby pins is provided along guide blade and within the confines of side walls I2-l2 and partition wall I9. This feeding guideway is directed upwardly toward, and into communication with, a horizontal ejection guideway constituted by the space located directly beneath top wall l3 and between side walls I2I2 and whose vertical thickness is determined by the distance from the top of guide blade 26 to the under surface of said top wall l3. The ejection guideway defines the path of outward movement of each topmost pin of the stack during ejection and therefore is in horizontal alignment with discharge opening IT.

The top wall I3 of the housing member is provided with a longitudinally extending guide slot 25. Mounted on the top wall I3 of the housing member, subject to manually actuated forward and back slidin movement thereon, is a pin ejector means. Said ejector means comprises a pin impeller member 26 disposed to slide upon the underside of said top wall I3 of the housing member. Disposed to slidably embrace the housing top exterior is a finger actuatable push piece 21, to which said pin impeller member 26 is connected by means of a coupler shank 28 which extends through and slides in the guide slot of the housing member top wall I3.

Arranged within the forward interior portion of the housing member ID, contiguous to the partition wall [9, is a vertically yieldable perpendicular detent plate 29, which is slidably disposed centrally between the side walls I2 of the housing member, and thus in the plane of the pin stack guide blade 20. The detent plate 29 is slidably supported against the partition wall I9 by an embracing guide yoke 30 which is suitably afiiixed to said .partition wall. The upper end of the detent plate 29 is normally stopped against the top wall l3 of the housing member behind the pin discharge opening H which is bisected thereby, and said detent plate is yieldably urged upwardly to such stopped position by a leaf spring 3| which thrusts against its lower end. The leaf spring 3| is suitably aflixed to the bottom wall 14 of the housing member. At the rearward part of its upper end, the detent plate 29 is formed to provide a rounded cam nosing 32.

Fixed upon the platform l8, exteriorly of but adjacent to the pin discharge opening I1, is a pin spreader element 33. This pin spreader element is provided by an upstanding stud which is preferably of elliptical cross-sectional shape,

and which is disposed diagonally as shown.

Provided in connection with the upper portion of the rear end wall I5 of the housing member I0 is an inwardly extending tongue 34 which is spaced downwardly from the top wall I3 in parallel relation thereto, and projecting angularly upward from the inner free end of said tongue 34 is a stop lu 35. The free end of this stop lug 35 is spaced from the top wall l3 of the housing member a distance less than the thickness of a bobby .pin P, but greater than the thickness of the impeller member 26, so that movements of the latter are not obstructed by said stop lug.

Preferably, the housing member ID is suitably enclosed. An illustrative form of enclosure, as shown, comprises an upwardly open casing 36 which is adapted to telescopically engage over the housing member, but in such manner as to leave exposed the pin discharge opening H, the pin spreader element 33, and the push piece 21 of the pin ejector means. It will be understood, that other forms of casing means may be provided, or such casing means may even be eliminated if desired.

To load a supply of bobby pins into the housing member ID, the casing 36 is removed therefrom so as to give access to the elevator or carriage 2 I. Said elevator or carriage 2| is pulled down along the guide blade 20 against the tension of the spring 24, whereupon bobby pins P can be applied to the guide blade 20 in straddling relation thereto so as to form a stack thereof above the elevator or carriage. When the bobby pins P are thus operatively stacked upon the guide blade 26, the free ends of the legs thereof are forwardly directed and stopped against the partition wall I9, and disposed to straddle the detent plate 29. The stack of bobby pins having thus been loaded into the housin member, the elevator or carriage 2| is released, so as to be upwardly urged by the spring 24, and thus to move the stack of pins upwardly along the guide blade 20 until the top-most pin is stopped by and lies contiguous to the top wall I3 of the housing member, and in the path of forward movement of the normally retracted impeller member 26. After a stack of bobby pins is thus loaded into the housing member I0, the latter may again be enclosed in the casing 36, whereupon the dispensing applicator device is ready for use, with the top-most pin P disposed in alignment with the discharge opening I! of said housing member [0 (see Figs. 6 and 7) In the use of the device, the operator first slides forward the impeller member 26 by manipulation of the push piece 21. As the impeller member 26 is thus moved forward it engages the rearward loop end of the top-most bobby pin P, and slides the same forwardly until the bight of the pin loop end engages the cam nosing 32 of the detent plate 29, whereupon the detent plate '29 offers sufficient resistance to outward movement of the bobby pin as to indicate to the operator that the first stage of dispensing delivery of the pin has been accomplished. In such first stage movement of the dispensed pin, the legs of the pin, as outwardly projected, are moved in straddling relation to the pin spreader element 33, whereby the latter operates to wedge the legs apart so as to spread the same into an open condition adapted to admit a tress of hair therebetween for embrace thereby (see Figs. 8 and 9).

Upon completion of the first stage of pin delivery, as above described, the projected pin is ready to be inserted by the operator into the hair desired to be engaged thereby, while'the projected pin still remains under the control of the dispensing applicator device. The operator therefore merely directs the device toward the hair desired to receive the pin whereby to thereupon insert the spread legs of the pin into said hair, with a tress of the hair entered between the spread pin legs So as to be embraced thereby. The projected pin having been thus entered in the hair, the operator again presses forwardly the push piece 21 to further advance the impeller member 26. Such further advance of the impeller member 26, acting on the loop end of the projected pin, thrusts said loop end of the pin against the cam nosing 32 of the detent plate 29, thus causing the latter to yield downwardly so that the loop end of the pin can pass over the same (see Fig. until said loop end moves through and clear of the discharge opening l1, to a stopped position against the pin spreader element 33 (see Fig. 11). The deliverin ejection of the bobby pin havingbeen thus completed, with accompanying application of the pin to the hair, the dispensing applicator device may be quickly and easily removed from the applied pin merely by swinging the device angularly to the axis of the pin, whereby to align the long axis of the spreader element 33 with the longitudinal axis of the pin loop end (see Fig. 12). By such movement of the device, the spreader element 33 is released from its pin leg spreading position, so that the pin legs may close together in clamping engagement with the hair tress embraced thereby, whereupon the spreader element 33 can be withdrawn from the pin loop end, as the dispensing applicator is removed, thereby leaving the applied pin in the hair subject to be pressed firmly home therein by the operators fingers.

Upon completion of the above operations, the push piece 21 is retracted to draw back the impeller member 26 to normal initial position. Such retractive movement of the impeller member 26 will not longitudinally displace the underlying next succeeding bobby pin P, since the latter Will be stopped, against rearward longitudinal displacing shift, by the engagement of its loop end with the stop lug 35. After the impeller member 26 is retracted to normal initial position, the spring pressed elevator or carriage 2| will again raise the stack of bobby pins so as to position a succeeding uppermost pin in the path of the impeller member 26, ready for a repetition of the above described pin delivering and applying operations.

From the above it will be understood that the instant invention not only provides a novel device for dispensing and spreading bobby pins, but also, in conjunction with the dispensing operation, provides means for operatively applying the dispensed pin to the hair desired to be dressed thereby.

Having now described our invention, we claim: I

1. A bobby pin dispensing applicator device comprising a magazine having a vertical feeding guideway for a loaded stack of bobby pins arranged in coextensive horizontal parallelism and a horizontal ejection guideway at the top of said feeding guideway in communication therewith for reception of the topmost pin of the stack, said magazine being provided with a horizontally directed discharge opening aligned with the path of outward movement of pins along the ejection guideway, means movable lengthwise of the feeding guideway for supporting and urging the stack of pins toward the ejection guideway, manipulatable means mounted for movement lengthwise of the ejection guideway to eject the pins one at a time from the magazine, and an upstanding spreader element of substantially elliptical crosssection mounted on the magazine exteriorly of the discharge opening thereof in general alignment with the pin ejection path and disposed to obliquely intersect said path, whereby to engage and spread apart-the legs of the pin to a degree of separation exceeding the transverse thickness of said spreader element when the pin is partially projected from the magazine and then to permit closing of the pin legs when the spreader element enters the pin loop after complete pin ejection has occurred and the device as a whole is turned laterally with respect to the pin to align the spreader element lengthwise to the pin loop for withdrawal of the former from the latter.

2. A bobby pin dispensing applicator device as defined in claim 1, wherein yieldably depressible detent means is supported by the magazine inwardly adjacent to the discharge opening therein in a position to project between the legs of each pin when in the ejection guideway so as to be engageable by the bight of the pin loop end whereby to arrest initial ejection movement of the pin, thereby to retain control of the pin by the device when the legs of said pin are spread apart for insertion of said legs into the hair to be dressed, said detent means being adapted to yield to induced final ejection movement of the pin.

3. A bobby pin dispensing applicator device as defined in claim 1, wherein a vertically movable detent member is mounted in the magazine in- Wardly adjacent to the discharge opening therein in a position to project between the legs of each pin when in the ejection guideway so as to be engageable by the bight of the 'pin loop end whereby to arrest initial ejection of the pin, thereby to retain control of the pin by the device when the legs of the said pin are spread apart for insertion of said legs into the hair to be dressed, said detent member having a cam nosing in a position to be engaged by the bight of the pin loop end and operative to depress the detent member from the ejection guideway upon further ejection movement of the pin, and yieldable means for urging the detent member into its pin arresting position in the ejection guideway.

VITO CARDELLA. IGNATIUS BON'IEMPI.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,250,303 Katz July 22, 1941 2,539,684 Avelli Jan. 30, 1951 

